But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went. Acts 8:4
Dr. Don L. McCutcheon, Sr., (pictured above) is a longtime
friend and fellow-laborer[1] in Christ. Some years ago Dr.
McCutcheon retired from the North Carolina Baptist Convention, where he served
as Director of Evangelism. I could tell
you a lot about Don and his loving spirit, laughter, and lifetime commitment to
sharing Christ with others. This time,
allow me to have our youngest daughter, Carrie tell it from the pew where she
sat as a 16-year-old as Don preached in our church:
“Had a great evening catching up with
an old friend and meeting his mother!! He and his sweet wife Kathy have been
special to my family for many years now....I won't say exactly how many because
that would tell MY age!! But I'll say, as a teenager, I took detailed notes
from the pew as Pastor Don McCutcheon preached to the youth about ‘Dudes
and Dudettes’”.
You gotta love a preacher who elevates youth as “dudes and dudettes”! I preached this past Sunday on the importance
of evangelism for the church, and that it is each individual member of the
church’s responsibility to be involved.
I asked Dr. McCutcheon to send me a few words about what evangelism has
meant to him. After appropriately reminding me just how difficult it is for a
Baptist preacher to write a few words about anything,
he sent me these few paragraphs about sharing the GOOD News:
Having been raised in a non-churched
family, I thought and was taught that if I were good I would certainly to go to
heaven. When I heard the gospel I
realized the error of my worldview and the truth of the Biblical worldview. After conversion, I realized how many did not
understand the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God helped me to see through the Scriptures,
especially John 3:16, that His great love moved Him to send His only begotten Son to die for
our sins and give us eternal life. Our response to that love calls us to turn
from and confess our sins to Him and trust and follow Him completely with our
lives. Matthew 28:19-20 reveals the command for all Christians to love, witness and disciple all
people to Christ and teach them to follow Him as Lord.
Evangelism is the highest form of
Christian love and obedience as the goal is for people to come to be born
again, know and follow our Lord and Savior. The greatest gift you could ever give anyone
is the opportunity to know Christ and have eternal life. The most heartbreaking and unending regret
Christians will have in heaven are the ones with whom we did not even try to
share the gospel. I took His commands
personally and seriously. I believed the agape love of God in John 3:16 clearly
proclaims He loves us.
Secondly, the will of God is that none
should perish (which happens to all who do not know Him) but that all should
come to Him through repentance as communicated in 2 Peter 3:9. I should be doing all I can to love, pray for and verbally witness to
those who do not know Him and face an eternity separated from Him. It is never easy to share the gospel, but it
is so important to our families, friends, neighbors, work associates and all
people to hear God's way of salvation. Ask God's Holy Spirit to give you courage and
strength to witness and then watch Him work through you.
For You Today
You
chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
Title image, Facebook image W Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For another post on Acts 8 see: Upside Down
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